A bird got in the house, and Sky went crazy trying to catch it. I came back from walking Viktor to find a little bird on the carpet. It was dead, and soaking wet from having been in Sky’s mouth. Sky broke two lamps and knocked everything off the table by the window. She seemed pretty happy about the whole affair.
0 Comments
On today’s search, Mu checked in the house just in case the cat was hiding inside. There were two German Shepherds in the house, in crates, and they stayed completely silent. My dogs would have gone crazy. After the search, I got to meet Jake and Ariel. They didn’t bark at all, and were very friendly. Ariel sat on my lap and gave me kisses. I love my crazy dogs, but sometimes I wonder what it might be like to live with calm, sweet, relaxed dogs.
It rained this morning! I really enjoyed walking the dogs at 4 in the morning in the rain. It made good working conditions for Mu. We searched in Edmonds, in a mix of homes and apartments. In one yard, a woman threw open the door screaming at us to get out of her yard, saying we had violated her rights and she was calling the police. The cat’s owner had obtained specific permission for the search, but apparently this woman didn’t understand what she had agreed to. It took ten minutes for the cat’s owner to calm this woman down so we could resume the search. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were shot one of these days. It says LOST PET RESCUE on the back of my jacket, and Mu wears an orange vest. I make sure to position my body between Mu and the upset person, so any bullets would hit me and not him. We are just looking for a lost cat. Maybe people need to turn off the TV and unplug the Internet so they won’t get so worked up.
We searched for a dog today, not following the scent trail, but just driving around Volunteer Park, looking, and talking to people. Tino stayed in the air conditioning the whole time. We didn’t find the dog, but we came upon this sculpture. I remembered being there with Kelsy. My iPhone remembers the location where a picture was taken, so I was able to see that we had been there five years before. I find that I often remember the geography of a search more than who we were actually looking for. Of course I remember the dog I was with as we moved through a particular landscape. I wish I could remember the thousands of cats and dogs that we have searched for.
We started early to beat the heat. I would rather have not searched for this cat because too much time had passed for us to have a good chance of success. The wife insisted we come out and search, but she had to leave for work. The husband came with us on the search. Instead of looking for his cat, he focused on finding evidence that Mu was not a good search dog and I was a fraud. Every time Mu sniffed where a dog peed, this man felt compelled to point out that it was probably dog pee and nothing to do with a cat. When Mu signaled the presence of a cat, the owner was very dismissive because it was not his cat, even though I had explained how Mu works. When we passed some bushes, he asked if Mu would smell a cat as he walked by. He had just witnessed Mu smelling a cat from a longer distance. I try not to let it bother me. It happens often. Some people just naturally find faults in everything. Also, I understand that losing a pet often puts people in a negative mood. I focus on the work and try not to feed into their fears.
Tino hasn’t been able to search recently because of the heat. We went to Rattlesnake Ledge for an adventure. We got to the top around dawn. It was a great view, but I was too nervous to get very close to the edge with the crazy puppy. He pulled me all the way up, which was kind of nice, but then he pulled all the way down, which was very annoying. When we got about 200 feet from the lake, I unhooked his leash so that he could sprints to the water and dive in. He wouldn’t go. He stayed close to me until we got to the lake. I asked him, “Why the hell were you yanking on the leash all the way down the mountain, killing my knees, if you just want to stay near me anyway?” He didn’t have a good answer.
Possibly another sign of Viktor coming out of his shell is that he is becoming more stubborn on our walks. He has always liked to take his time, with lots of pauses. Recently, he has been taking an extra long time to walk up the driveway to home. Today he made 13 stops in 150 feet. He moves up a few feet and then sits for a few minutes. Then moves a few more feet then sits and looks around. I try to get work done on my phone as Viktor surveys his kingdom.
Viktor has been enjoying new freedoms. He likes to get in the middle of the pack of dogs as they swarm around him. Unfortunately, he also likes to steal things and destroy them. He got an iPad recently. We’ve been trying to encourage interaction, and it’s sad that we have to crate him unless he is closely watched. The house needs to be made safe so that anything Viktor grabs is expendable.
I went for a run early in the morning and this cat ran out to greet me in the middle of the street, near 149th and 16th. I couldn’t tell if he was asking for help or just wanted to say hello. I petted him for a while and figured he was just friendly. I saw him in the same place the next day.
|
James Branson
Principal at Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue, volunteer at Useless Bay Sanctuary, author of A Voice for the Lost Archives
December 2019
Categories |